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Chancellor 'sympathetic' to operatorecall for help
Page 6
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The Chancellor will not make any decisions on scrapping the planned 2p/lit rise in fuel duty ahead of the Budget. Roanna Avison reports.
CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling is sympathetic to the plight of aperators, but the industry will lave to wait until the Budget next month to find out whether he will thandon the 2p/lit rise in fuel duty hie in April.
The Road Haulage Association RHA) and the Freight Transport Association (FTA) met with Darling on Monday, asking him .o scrap the increase and create more level playing field for JK hauliers.
RHA chief executive Roger ing says: We were received ympathetically. He understands the predicament the industry is in."
Both the RHA and the FTA pointed out the pressures the industry faces due to unparalleled fuel cost rises coupled with high rates of fuel duty.
King says: "We identified the issues concerning foreign operators in this country. While the total percentage of cabotage may appear low at 1-2%, we pointed out that there is very little cal)otage in milk tankers, livestock and aggregates — and when you take all that out,the competition is quite severe. He adds that the Chancellor asked whether there was anything else the government could do to help the transport sector and we touched on areas such as enforcement and the delay to the Graduated Fixed Penalty Scheme".
"If he decides not to do anything, it won't be because we haven't put forward our views in a forthright manner," King says.
FTA chief executive Theo de Pencier adds that Darling had clearly done his homework and was sympathetic to the issues faced by operators.
"He asked a lot of intelligent questions about the state of the industry and questioned us about the positives and negatives of a vignette.
-We also asked him to consider delinking the tax on fuel for CVs [from tax on fuel for cars]."
The FTA will also report back to the Treasury once it has the results of two pieces of research it is undertaking — one on operator cost comparisons between the I.1K and the Continent and the other on the practicalities of delinking fuel duty for CVs.